The Star’s laudatory and self-congratulating editorial concerning enhanced government “protection” of large-species mammals imprisoned in Ontario’s entertainment industry fails to examine the glaring lack of inalienable, constitutionally guaranteed legal rights for non-human animals, and the daily barbarism directed at them by us, the people of Ontario.

Orcas, cetaceans and other free-ranging sea mammals have no business being caged in areas that for humans would be considered one-metre square torture boxes.

Within the last two weeks, reports have surfaced of cats being beheaded and left in plastic bags, and bundles of poisons being left for park-visiting dogs. Even the vast majority of our so-called “pets” live lives of understimulation and terrible nutrition. Animals on factory farms live in conditions that could only be described as barbaric — and these animals are the food that we eat.

Our sense of compassion when stories of individual animal abuse stand in stark contrast to our daily consumption of sentient animals as food, the use of them for experimental torture for the sake of pharmaceuticals on one end, and cosmetics on the other. We wear their skins as clothing, use it as furniture, and slaughter thousands upon thousands daily in local abattoirs.

Children go through their days watching a parade of animated talking animals on the TV, usually while eating a meat-based meal of those same animals.

With these new regulations and increased government funding to the OSPCA, we can salve our collective conscience that “something is being done.” However, our hypocrisy is glaring. Animals still live and die at our whim and need.

The provincial government measures are typically representative of the Liberal Party: bringing superficial populist “change,” while leaving the deep structures of abuse intact. Real change will occur when species of animals are recognized in law as “non-human persons,” and not as our property and slaves.

Colin Barnard, Pickering

Critics slam lack of OSPCA transparency, Oct. 26

Congratulations to Linda Diebel and Liam Casey for this article highlighting the problems with the new $5.5-million deal between the province and the OSPCA. The public has every right to know the details of this agreement, particularly since the OSPCA is a for-profit organization with a history of abusing its powers.

In the article, Community Safety Minister Madeleine Meilleur is quoted as saying, “Our government cares deeply for the well-being of animals wherever they live in this province.”

That flies in the face of another recent move by the Ontario government to pump millions of dollars into the sagging horse-racing industry. Horse racing is extremely animal-unfriendly — tens of thousands of horses that are no longer fast or fit enough to race are sold to meat buyers for a few hundred dollars each, rather than being allowed to live out their retirement years after working very hard during their youth for their owners and the public.

By boosting the horse-racing industry the government is complicit in this cruel practice. It would be far better to spend the money on caring for retired horses than on supporting an industry that is collapsing.

Rosemary Frei, Toronto

After the enormous, public uproar over Marineland’s horrific conditions, it is with great disappointment that Ontario’s revised animal welfare laws have arrived. The government had the opportunity and a realistic hope of passing stronger animal protective legislation by uniting with NDP colleagues in the legislature.

We should have seen a tough licensing system, and comprehensive animal care regulations drafted by non-partisan, sea mammal experts. Instead, they have provided a voluntary inspection registry for zoos and aquariums, and a weak promise of improved animal care standards sometime in the future.

The prolonged response, and now these insignificant, minor revisions will do nothing to stop Marineland’s unspeakable cruelty behind doors or to mitigate the hellish suffering of seals, dolphins and whales.

The provincial Liberal administration has failed these animals. Ontarians and the captive sea animals in their jurisdiction deserved so much better.